The Earthly Rose in Cawthorne

24/05/2017 14:25

The Chorale returned to All Saints Parish Church in Cawthorne, Yorkshire on 20th May 2017. It was 2014 when we last sang here and the Church members had been looking forward to our return. We had linked our concert’s theme – ‘The Earthly Rose’ – to the Cawthorne Open Gardens event taking place in June. Many of the songs we sang had a floral subject. As our poster advertised: ‘Garlands of roses, lilies, broom and primroses in beautiful songs by Britten, Mealor, Whitacre and Ešenvalds.’

Ready to Sing Joyfully

The vicar was fulsome in his praise of our concert and said that it had been well worth the wait, and could we come back soon! John Walker, Chair of Cawthorne Parish Council, said it had been a wonderful concert and every single song was enjoyable. This writer replied that it was enjoyable to have sung in the concert – we get a kick out of seeing smiling faces in a packed audience.

A friend of this writer was thrilled by the quality of the Chorale’s singing, amazed by the variety of our programme, and thought two songs (separated by 400 years) were particularly moving: Sing Joyfully by William Byrd and Goodnight My Angel by Billy Joel (so much for our floral theme). However, she thought the ethereal, sampled wine glasses played on two iPads in Stars by Ešenvalds were a bit loud and too directional! We need to think about that.

One of the reasons we like singing in the Chorale is the variety of music we get to sing. The above comment is a typical audience reaction to our concert programmes. Warm thanks go to Jill our MD who conjures up these wonderful concerts and gets us performing so well.

Cawthorne is a special venue for Jill – she spent her childhood here and still has close ties to the village. Her father, also a choral conductor, brought his international touring choir Sine Nomine to give an annual concert for many years and her mother was at the heart of village life for over 45 years.

GG

Afternoon tea for the Chorale was provided by the good ladies of Cawthorne

PS Our secretary tweeted a comment about the lovely concert we had in Cawthorne and composers Eric Whitacre and Ola Gjeilo, whose music we had sung in the concert, liked it!